Arts, movies. --- (1) A movie without people. (2) A movie without characters. For example, no humans, and no non-human talking animals. (3) What would it be like? Would it be a shot of trees waving in the breeze? A landscape shot. How interesting would that be to the average audience? The popularity of movies is based on the fact that people enjoy observing other people. --- 10/20/2004

Arts, movies. --- (1) Movies are bigger than life when the screen is large. (2) Movies are preserved for all time. (3) Movies are easily replicated and distributed. --- 7/18/1998

Arts, movies. --- (1) The initial appeal of movies was that movies are like real life. Movies seem real. Movies are life-like. A movie is an audio/visual experience that simulates real life in a way that no written text can. (2) The next appeal of movies is that movies, in some ways, are better than real life. Movies are more exciting than real life. Movies are more packed with emotion than real life. Movies have interesting, beautiful people in them, often in exotic, far off lands. If you lead an relatively boring life then movies are better than life. Movies exceed life. --- 4/15/2005

Arts, movies. --- A movie exercise. Watch a movie with a partner, one of you blindfolded, the other with earphones that block out the movie soundtrack but lets you hear the other persons voice. You must both communicate to enjoy the movie. --- 3/10/2000

Arts, movies. --- Acting and appearances. (1) Convincing appearance: Good acting means you cannot tell the person is acting. Good acting is thus invisible. It depends on the acuity of the audience, and thus good acting is a relative term. (2) Unconvincing appearance: You see through it (so to speak). Bad acting is noticeable, like a musical note struck off key. --- 4/8/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting and personality. (1) Can a person effectively act a role that is opposite their core personality? Or do we always bring some of ourself to any role we act? (2) A complaint about average actors is that they seem the same in every role they play. They are uni-dimensional people. A compliment to good actors is that they are versatile and can play a wide variety of roles. They are multidimensional. (3) Yet you cannot act a role that you know nothing of. --- 9/15/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting and personality. (1) Therefore, there is always something of the self in every role we play. (2) There is always something of the other in every role we play. (3) We are always acting to some degree. We act in social situations. We even act to ourselves. (4) Another word for acting is "lying" and "secrecy". (5) Where is honesty? Be it to others or to ourselves. (6) The entire notion of acting calls into question the concept of a stable, unified self. --- 9/20/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting, definitions of. (1) Pretending. Pretending to be someone you are not. Deception. Impostor. For example, pretending to be a bus driver when you are not. (2) Social based definitions of acting. Playing a role in a social setting. For example, playing the social role of a bus driver in real life when you actually are a bus driver. There are many social roles that people play. (3) Art based definitions of acting. Playing a role on a stage. For example, playing the role of a bus driver on a theater or film stage. The crucial point here is that the audience knows you are an actor. The audience knows "its only a movie". (4) Psychological based definitions of acting. (A) Trying to convince yourself. For example, acting interested even when you are not. (B) Cases of self deception. Trying to kid yourself. --- 10/20/2004

Arts, movies. --- Acting. (1) Acting as pretending and play. Children play from an early age. At what age do children start playing, "Let's pretend"? Acting can be seen as a continuation of the child's game "Let's pretend". (2) Acting as role playing. Role playing can be a form of psychotherapy. Thus acting, and even watching acting, is a form of psychotherapy. (3) Acting and social role playing. All social interaction is a form of acting. All social interaction is a form of role playing. On the one hand, we act like how we would like to be seen by others. On the other hand, we act like how we think others would like us to be. All in order to get what we want and to please others. (4) Acting is a way of thinking by doing. People use their body and actions as an aid to their "minding" or thinking. For example, pacing the floor, scratching the head, etc. (5) Acting is a way of communicating by doing. People can communicate without words through the use of posture, gesture, facial expression, etc. --- 4/26/2005

Arts, movies. --- Acting. (1) Psychology of acting. Why does one feel compelled to act? With or without an audience. With or without the audience knowing it is an act. What is going on in the head of the actor? (2) Sociology of acting. What does the actor get from the audience? What does audience get from the actor? --- 9/20/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting. (1) The basis of everyday acting is in conflicted thoughts, conflicted emotions, and conflicted attitudes (thoughts and emotions). Example, I'm attracted to a villainess but I know she is evil so I act one way yet feel and think another way. We all do this in real life. We are all actors in real life. (2) Two definitions of acting. (A) Acting defined as behaving. (B) Acting defined as putting on an act, which may not be "truthful" in that it is not how we really feel or think, but it may be truthful in that it is really the front we want to show a person. See number one above. (3) Deception is another thing. (4) Acting in film, i.e., playing someone else, is yet another thing. (5) The amount that movie acting can tell us about everyday sociology is staggering. --- 12/27/1998

Arts, movies. --- Acting. (1) Underacting: Deadpan actors like Michael Moriarity and Robert Redford. Negative views of under-acting are that it is not emotionally expressive. Not emotionally giving. Repressed. A positive views says these under-actors are letting the audience project their own meaning on the character in the scene. (2) Acting. Emotionally giving. (3) Over-acting: Hysterical. Histrionics. Ex., later Deniro and Pacino. Theater acting. The theater requires over-acting to reach the cheap seats, and the movies tone it down for close-ups, thus movie actors sometimes feel underacting is by nature good, but this is a mistake. --- 1/20/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Acting a role is like wearing a costume. Acting can be used to reveal as well as hide. Acting and fashion are often used to explore and experiment. --- 9/20/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Acting as action. Acting as gestures when a person is talking. Acting as body language. When we discuss acting we are discussing body, body position, and body movement. In this way, acting is very close to dance. (See also: Arts, dance). --- 12/28/2006

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Actors feign emotions for catharsis of the audience. The character or face of the actor must appear truthful. We all act (i.e. feign, fake, and hide secrets) to get what we want. --- 12/30/1996

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Can an actor truthfully and believably play a character smarter than he or she is? Good question. Are great actors necessarily smart? Or just good mimics? --- 10/15/1994

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Everyone acts, whether its social acting or dramatic acting. (1) Social acting is the faces we put on to negotiate our way through daily life. Social acting is done in "real life" and it is when the audience does not know we are acting. (2) Dramatic acting, or theatrical acting, is the acting one does to tell a story. Dramatic acting is when our audience knows its a play and knows we are acting. --- 12/28/2006

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Four increasing levels of audience involvement in a work of art. (1) Audience is interested or curious about the characters in the work of art. (2) Audience has an emotional like or dislike for characters. (3) Audience feels a connection to the character. An empathic "I know what you mean." or "I feel your pain". (4) Audience becomes the character, and actually lives through the characters. --- 1/21/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. One shouldn't use acting, or any art, as a stand-in for dealing with your life directly. --- 1/21/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Origins of acting. When you mimic in voice and gesture, or when you do an impression, that is a primitive form of acting. --- 9/20/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting. The basis for all acting is taking on the role of another person. I am using the term "acting" broadly here, as a social phenomena not restricted to art. When we describe a social situation by saying "She was all like...(gesture). And he was all like...(gesture).", we are taking the role of another person, that is, we are acting like another person. This was a big step when humans started doing this hundreds of thousands of years ago. --- 10/28/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. The evolution of acting. When did humans evolve the ability to act theatrically? When did humans develop the ability to play a role of someone other than themselves? When did humans develop the ability to impersonate someone? When did humans develop the ability to mimic? Mimicry is very common in the animal kingdom. Psychologists have discovered "mirror cells" in the brain, which help animals mimic. --- 11/10/2006

Arts, movies. --- Acting. The sound of an actors voice is often as important as how they look. Yet very few people notice it. --- 4/8/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. There is a psychological phenomenon of acting and there is a sociological phenomenon of acting. Some would argue that acting is a psychological coping strategy and a sociological survival strategy. The psychopathology called hysteria or histrionics can also be called overacting. Repression is a form of underacting. --- 9/20/2002

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Two types of acting, social acting and theatrical acting. (1) Social acting. People engage in social acting in everyday life. People act socially when playing various social roles such as parent, worker, friend, etc. (2) Theatrical acting. People engage in theatrical acting when putting on plays. People also act theatrically when telling stories, even if its amongst friends and not on a stage. --- 11/10/2006

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Two types of actors. (1) Invisible actors: only show the character and do not show themselves through the character. (2) Visible actors: let themselves show through the character. --- 1/15/2001

Arts, movies. --- Acting. Walking down the street, people seem to see something in you that you know is just not there. And yet they see it, so for them it is there. This unfeigned falsity must be the root of all acting. --- 3/25/2002

Arts, movies. --- Actor as faker, liar, or poseur. --- 8/15/1998

Arts, movies. --- Analysis of film (See art notes. See literature notes). Plot, theme, setting, subject, view. How good the message, and how well said. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- At the movies, people sitting quietly in the darkness, like astronomers. --- 4/15/2005

Arts, movies. --- Balance of power on the movie set. Is the movie set a dictatorship or democracy? That depends on how power is distributed. (1) Do-It-Yourself auter. One person writes, directs, produces and acts. (2) Egalitarian movie sets: Swapping roles. Everyone knows how to do every task. Everyone does every task (writer, actor, director, producer) at some point in the movie. --- 5/14/2004

Arts, movies. --- Casting physical types to play their corresponding character types. Could anything be more boring? Character types are boring to begin with. Reinforcing a character type with a physical type is doubly boring. I say, no types, character or physical. --- 6/17/2001

Arts, movies. --- Criticism. The question is usually not whether a movie is good technically, artistically, etc.. The question is usually, "Is the movie about a subject that society thinks is important, and does the movie say what society thinks should be said on the subject? --- 2/10/2002

Arts, movies. --- Film combines words, music, visual images and theater. Film is a synthesis of the arts that preceded it. --- 6/14/2000

Arts, movies. --- Goals. (1) Make a list of 5 star movies. See ones you haven't seen. (2) Rent or buy a camcorder, make your own short movies. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- Great movies in terms of artistic aspects, theme, message, idea aspects, historical significance (first, or best). You could watch one a week and do the top 100 in two years. --- 01/01/1993

Arts, movies. --- How to "hollywood-ize" a book by turning it into a movie. (1) Gross oversimplification of the story. Leave stuff out. (2) Fictionalize. Add things to the story that simply are not true. (3) Sentimentalize. Play up emotion. Tug at heart strings. --- 2/10/2002

Arts, movies. --- I cannot get behind an art that requires a lot of technology, so I cannot get behind movies. However, in defense of movies, one can argue that a person can move from theater to film, or from comics to film, in much the same way that a person can move from pen and paper writing to hypertext writing, or from pen and paper writing to database writing. So if one criticizes movies for using excess technology, then one can criticize web pages and blogs for using excess technology. --- 3/5/2007

Arts, movies. --- If someone makes a great movie from a great book or a great play then they have not really accomplished much. --- 6/16/1998

Arts, movies. --- If you digitally filmed every minute of every day, how much data would that be? How many GB will a 16 hour day of audio/video require? A two hour movie requires 5 GB. 16 hours will require 40 GB a day. 365 days x 40 GB per day = 12000 GB for one year. PART TWO. Digitally filming every day. By sharing this data between people you are sharing life. The results: (1) You can lead many lives. You can be many people, not just one. (2) Increased empathy. When you ask "how did your day go?", you can see for yourself by watching the playback. --- 8/3/2002

Arts, movies. --- In my opinion the 100 best books are much better than the 100 best movies. No contest. What then can justify movies? Perhaps when some people read a book they are unable to imagine the story so clearly as to be able to see the story like a movie in their mind. Perhaps some people do not have a "movie-grade" imagination when it comes to reading books. Perhaps when they read a novel it is about as exciting as reading highway directions or reading a food recipe. For these people, the movies must seem like a mind-blowing revelation. --- 6/20/2000

Arts, movies. --- Independent movies vs. major studio movies. (1) The trend in independent movies today is digital film. Digital movies can be shot with a small, inexpensive digital camera, edited with a computer, and distributed on the Internet. Digital film gives more creative power to more filmmakers. Digital film gives more viewing choices to more film go-ers. (2) Digital films by independent movie-makers are a defense against the forces of the major-studio movie industry. The major studios want to make money. The major studios are corporations driven by profits. So they make movies that appeal to mass audiences in order to sell a lot of tickets. This leads to several negative effects: (A) Lots of mindless sex and violence. (B) Minorities are under-represented. (C) Controversial subjects and views are not discussed. (D) No unsettling topics, like, for example, the state of the world. Only happy fantasy movies. (E) No experimentation, no creativity, no art . Use only formulas that work. (F) Reuse product. Make sequels. (G) Don't challenge the audience. Don't make the audience think. --- 4/4/2000

Arts, movies. --- It defeats the purpose of movies to call a movie great if that movie is based on a book, because that is just like saying the book is great. A step further, all movies are based on a written script, and for any great movie you could just read the script, because the script stands on its own. --- 6/21/2000

Arts, movies. --- Most important in movies are the writers, not the actors, director, or producer. The writer gives us the story (plot, theme), character and dialogue. --- 3/30/1998

Arts, movies. --- Most movies seem dumb. Is this due to the fact that most movies are geared to a mass audience? Not necessarily. Or is it due to the fact that the movie industry does not attract intelligent people? Not really. Or is it due to the fact that the medium of movies does not deal well with abstract concepts and thus the medium itself works to prevent smart movies from being made? Yes, that's probably why. --- 11/10/2001

Arts, movies. --- Movement of camera in relationship to subject. Size of frame. Size of element in frame. Point of view in sphere. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- Movie idea. Make a movie created out of clips from other movies. Its about a guy and a girl. But the guy and girl are represented by a series of guys and girls from a series of clips from other movies. --- 3/17/2000

Arts, movies. --- Movie industry. Money spent, money taken in, number of people employed, and number of people it reaches. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- Movie music trivia. Hum the themes from Dr. Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, and Star Wars. Whistle the themes from Great Escape, Hogans Heroes, and Bridge over the River Kwai. --- 11/29/1998

Arts, movies. --- Movies are complicated, requiring many people and much technology. Hollywood reinforces this by often giving Oscar awards to big, expensive, epic productions. Movies are traditionally not simple, quick, do-it-yourself works. --- 4/8/2001

Arts, movies. --- Movies are the closest thing to real life. --- 3/30/1998

Arts, movies. --- Movies go by the "show, don't tell" slogan. But its difficult to "show" an abstract idea. Therefore, movies tend not to deal with abstract concepts. When they do attempt to deal with abstract ideas they tend to do so poorly. Yet, one may ask, how much can one say without using abstract concepts? --- 9/28/2000

Arts, movies. --- Movies of the future. (1) The viewer is surrounded by 3-D holograms of real life actors. (2) The next step would be actors that are not based on real people, but rather digitally created bodies (and personalities). (3) Interactive. Plot changes with your dialogue and physical interaction with the characters. --- 4/22/1999

Arts, movies. --- No film I ever saw ever knocked me out. Gave me the "wow" effect. Blew my mind. Left a strong and lasting impression. Not one. There I said it. --- 12/27/1998

Arts, movies. --- Number of movies must see for (1) Historical significance. (2) Theme or plot. (3) Acting, directing, or technical. If you could see one per week, that is 52 per year, and 100 hours killed. --- 12/06/1993

Arts, movies. --- On the set. Acting, directing, writing, producing, cinematography, who has the most power in flick vs. who added the most creativity. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- One view is that movies are essentially a stupid medium, unable to convey abstract thought, and that is why most movies seem dumb. --- 1/2/2005

Arts, movies. --- PART ONE. Goal: bring the audience "into" the movie by using a convergence of technologies: (1) Three dimensional technology. (2) Interactive technology. (3) Digital movie making technology. (4) RPG role playing game technology. (5) Virtual reality technology. (6) Computer based training technology. PART TWO. Another three goals: Achieve social interaction with other characters. Achieve environmental interaction with the setting. Achieve psychological interaction with your own character. --- 7/20/2001

Arts, movies. --- Power on the movie set. Who has most power on the set? When can a great actor outrank a mediocre director? --- 6/9/2004

Arts, movies. --- Question: In a movie without any dialogue or narration, of what importance is the writer? Answer: He still comes up with the story. --- 2/10/2002

Arts, movies. --- Silent movies with no captions transcend language and can be shown anywhere in the world. Why are silent movies not more popular? --- 8/4/2002

Arts, movies. --- Some people do not enjoy reading. Can you believe it? Text has little appeal to them. In some cases they do not even enjoy talking. Words in general do not thrill them. These people are thrilled by pictures or music. Movies delight these people. --- 11/6/2001

Arts, movies. --- Sometimes a movie is good based on either good writing, good acting or good direction. (1) Good writing movies: George Kaufman's scripts. (2) Good acting movies: Ellen Barkin's movies. (3) Good directing movies: Orson Welle's "Citizen Kane". --- 12/28/2003

Arts, movies. --- Summary. (1) Movies are the easiest form of art to consume? Good for passive consumption. (2) Movies are the most emotionally evocative form of art? Movies make people cry easily, fall in love easily, etc. Is it just the music in the sound track that adds the emotional impact to movies? (3) Movies synthesize all the preceding arts (music, words, images, etc.). (4) Movies do not deal well with abstract ideas. Movies deal better with concrete situations. --- 11/15/2001

Arts, movies. --- There is something about almost all movies that reminds me of educational shorts. Contrived. Transparent. --- 10/19/2005

Arts, movies. --- Things we say about bad movies. (1) Acting was not believable. (2) Story was not believable. Story was not interesting. (3) Poor production values. Poor lighting. Lighting too dark. Poor sound. Sound muffled. (4) Poor editing. Edits don't flow smoothly. (5) Music score does not fit mood of the film. (6) The message, the theme, was not new, true or important. (7) Bloopers. Mistakes. Flubs. (8) Didn't make one think. Didn't make one feel. Left no impression. --- 5/1/2005

Arts, movies. --- What are movies? (1) Movies reach the most people of all media. (2) Most powerful media in 20th century? (3) Most important 20th century art form? (4) Movies are the dominant art form at this time and place. (5) Movies combine: words, images, actions, sound, and music. (6) Film as communication. (7) Film as art. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- What if you tried to learn about the world only by watching movies? A the other extreme, what if you tried to learn about the world without watching any movies? --- 1/10/2006

Arts, movies. --- What, contra. Film: what can you say in two hours? Books: are portable, easier to look through. --- 12/30/1992

Arts, movies. --- What, contra. Film. Its a truism that people like the book better than the movie. (1) A book leaves more to the imagination, it is a better mental workout, and it is more mentally active. (2) Also, two hours of dialogue takes up 50 written pages. Books are around 200 to 300 written pages. There is more information in a book. --- 06/05/1997

Arts, movies. --- What, pro. The main strong point of movies is that they let the viewer take a trip without going anywhere. Country folk go to the city, and city folk go to the country. Dr. Zhivago is a great scenery movie. The Russian landscape is evocative and emotive. Tom Horn was great in this respect too. --- 01/07/1997

Arts, movies. --- Why I don't like movies: because I am not a big fan of narrative. --- 2/7/2000

Arts, movies. --- With a moving face and a tender voice on a silver screen the movies perhaps come closest of all the arts to real communication. --- 3/14/2000

Arts, movies. --- Works. Screenplay: A Day in the Life of a Philosopher. Scene One: The philosopher wakes up and spends ten minutes staring at the ceiling. The philosopher then swings his legs out of bed and spends ten minutes sitting on the edge of the bed thinking. Scene Two: The shower. The philosopher spends ten minutes thinking in the shower. The philosopher gets a good idea. Scene Three: Morning walk. The philosopher gets another good idea. Scene four: The cafe. The philosopher stares absently while the waitress asks him how he likes his coffee. The philosopher pays for his coffee with a twenty dollar bill and walks away without getting his change. Scene five. The study. The philosopher takes out a blank sheet of paper and pen. He stares at the paper. He stares up in the air. He stares at the paper. Raises an eyebrow. Knits eyebrow. Taps pen on desk. Looks out window. Writes something. Scratches it out. Writes something else. To be continued. --- 4/21/2005

Arts, movies. --- Works. Short film. How to Survive a Bear Attack. Scene One: Instructor says, "In this video we could not afford a real bear so we use a man in a bear suit. We will teach you how to use kung fu to protect yourself from a bear who also knows kung fu." Scene Two: Shot of a actor dressed as a camper and an actor wearing a bear suit kung fu fighting in a variety of situations. Scene Three: Instructor says, "In our next example we will show how a bear who knows kung fu protects itself against a gorilla who also knows kung fu." Scene Four: Shot of an actor in bear suit kung fu fighting with an actor in a gorilla suit. Scene Five: Instructor says, "Using these techniques a person, or a bear, or a gorilla, can enjoy their camping trip." Scene Six: Shot of a man, a bear and a gorilla having tea in the woods. --- 4/21/2005

Arts, movies. --- Works. The Philosopher, continued. Scene: It is evening, and the philosopher is in yet another cafe'. He reads a book, oblivious to his surroundings. At the next table, a beautiful woman finds the philosopher's introversion attractive. She says, "What are you reading?" He says, "I'm reading a book of philosophy." She says, "What's it about?" He says, "I could tell you, but then I would have to explain it to you." She says, "Is that what you do? You are a philosopher?" He says, "Yes, that is correct." She says, "Well, what do you say we go to your place and hop like bunnies." She winks at him. He says, "I have difficulty forming a counter-argument to your contention." She says, "Is that a yes?" He says, "Yes." --- 7/8/2006